Page 15 of Entwined Hearts
I’d never say it out loud, but looking at her caused all this. It was entirely my fault, though. I looked in the first place when I knew I shouldn’t have. That was something that got drilled into me at the beginning of my training as a kid: never lose focus. It was a cardinal rule, and breaking it put everything at risk.
But when Savannah Hayes was around, all my focus went to her. She was my true north. My sun. It was inevitable. I would’ve had to be dead not to look at her when she was near.
“No. Just listen to me,” Beau said, taking a step towards me. “She was there. At the hospital with us.”
The ground could’ve swallowed me whole. I staggered back. “What?” I whispered.
Beau nodded. “She was…” He let out a heavy breath, staring at the ground. “God, she was hysterical, Weston. She nearly jumped the fence to the arena once the bull cleared, screamin’ your name, sobbing uncontrollably. Emmett had to literally peel her away.”
My pulse thundered in my ears, and I looked back at the house where she just stood, my heart in my throat. My buttoned-up, always composed, always careful Sav wasscreaming?
“Claire and I were talking to the paramedic, and I had to keep her from jumpin’ into the ambulance. She fought me hard onthat, and when I told her how banged up you were, she bent over and threw up right on my damn boots.”
“Bet that was your favorite part of the night,” I murmured, trying to cover the fact that I was hanging by a thread.
I felt like puking too after hearing how upset she was, my guilt twisting me up so tight I felt like a rung out rag. I let out a shaky breath, running a hand over my mouth. My chest ached, but my heart hurt even more. To know that she was so worried over me gutted me to the point that I could hardly breathe.
When we were together, she’d always been so afraid I’d get hurt, always assumed the worst-case scenario would happen, and this time it did, and she’d been alone. I hadn’t been there to take care of her.
“She stayed at the hospital all night. Stayed when all the girls left, and it was just me, Colt, her, and Emmett. The surgeon came out and said you were okay, and she would’ve hit the ground if it hadn’t been for Colt catchin’ her. She was the first one back there to see you.”
I looked at Beau then. “What? She came back there?”
“Yeah, was with you for a while, too.”
“I thought I hallucinated that,” I admitted. So all of that actually happened. Her tears, her hand in mine, me telling her I never stopped loving her, the way she left.
Shit.
“Well, you weren’t.”
I blinked, lost somewhere in a daze. “Then why hasn’t she said anything to me? I thought she was avoiding me because we hadn’t seen each other yet.”
Beau shrugged. “Your guess is as good as mine, and I got no fuckin’ idea.” He came beside me, resting his hand on my good shoulder. “Maybe you said some off-the-wall shit because of the meds and overwhelmed her.”
If I had to guess, that was exactly what happened. Savannah always did spook easily. “Maybe,” I said distractedly, still watching the house as if I could summon her back outside with sheer will alone.
“C’mon, let’s get you inside before Anna sees your hand and tears into me for not watchin’ you closer.”
I followed after him without another word, not having anything to respond with for once.
6
Savannah
The car ride to Anna’s house was silent. Or I was silent while Claire and Emmett talked about the environmental impact claim I had gotten from Sterling and Preston Hollis just thirty minutes ago. It was amazingly predictable that they submitted it just minutes before the courthouse closed, forcing me to wait until morning to appeal it.
What a bunch of game-playing assholes.
I should’ve been thinking about the appeal. It affected all of us, and Claire had a mini freak-out over it and still was, given the way she was snapping at our brother. But my mind was stuck on the fact that I was about to see Weston again. This time without the haze of painkillers to soften things.
As soon as I told Claire about the claim, she sent a text to the group chat she’d made with all of us a few weeks ago when we all agreed to own stakes in the new ranch, just so everyone was up to date on what was going on. I’d had a mini heart attack after seeing that I had never changed Weston’s name in my phone.
He had still been Wes, and it had been inexplicably painful and difficult to change it to Weston Tate. But not as gut-wrenching as that night at the rodeo nearly two weeks ago.
And then seeing him yesterday beating into that tree… I’d never seen him angry like that. It was so unlike the happy-go-lucky, playful guy I knew, and it took everything in me not to rush over to him to ease his suffering. But that wasn’t my job anymore, and it hadn’t been for a very long time.
I couldn’t help but wonder how he’d react seeing me this time. What if he acted completely different and pretended I didn’t exist? What if he didn’t remember what he said at the hospital? Or what if he did, and wanted to talk about us again?
